We had a great stop in Barra de Navidad; enjoying the ridiculously flat anchorage in the estuary. Hugh managed to continue his streak as the only person who’s run khulula aground! Turns out the channel they dredge to the anchorages is quite narrow. No sooner had Bryson handed over the wheel to Hugh for the last half a mile when we felt that strange sensation of some outside force acting on the keel of the boat! The feeling comes up through your feet, and you don’t know exactly what’s happening at first, but then, errrrrrr, the boat stops. Luckily it was a soft muddy bottom, so with a bit of coaxing from the engine, we were able to swing around and drive off. Only our ego’s were damaged.

After a fruitful visit from The French Baker yesterday morning, we pulled out of Barra for another jump up the coast to Punta de Mita (near Puerto Vallarta). The French Baker is this very polite gentleman who drives his panga (small boat) around to all the cruising boats every morning selling this amazing assortment of croissants, pastries, bread, and pain au chocolate treats that he’s baked all night. Yum! Once out of the bay, the wind did its usual trick of coming up around 10am and blowing from just the right angle that we couldn’t quite sail on course up the coast. So we spend yesterday afternoon and all night tacking back and forth to make our way up to Cabo Corrientes. Good thing Khulula goes up wind so well, making it not quite as frustrating as it could have been. Even still, in the past 24 hours we’ve sailed a total of 147 nm, yet only made it 109 miles closer to our destination.

Date: 7 April 2010
time: 0800
Lat: 20 deg 32 N
Long: 105 deg 43 W
Boat: 4.0 knts at 340 deg T
Wind: 14.0 knts at NNE
Waves: low southwesterly swell
Distance to Punta de Mita: 19 nm